43
The rest of my morning seemed to totally drag—something that was only made worse by the slimy sensation of being watched from all corners. In fact, that wasn't just my imagination. Everyone was staring at me, again, just like when I’d first returned from Cambodia. Except this time, they were staring thanks to the video circulating of me decking Scott.
Both Bree and Kody were waiting for me when I rushed out to the parking lot and all but fell into Kody's arms.
"I'm so freaking ready to get off campus for an hour," I lamented, snuggling my face into Kody's T-shirt and inhaling the manly smell of him.
His hands stroked down my back, soothing me even as he laughed at my theatrics. "Well, are you girls going to wanna talk about sex?" He sounded cautious, and I frowned up at him, confused.
"Hell yes," Bree answered for us.
Kody rolled his eyes. "Then maybe you should ride with Bree and get that part done in private. I'll follow behind you."
My brows rose in surprise. "Really?"
He nodded firmly. "God yes. I don't ever want to hear about how my cock compares to Arch’s or Steele’s, thanks. Leave me alone in my fantasy that they're total crap in bed and I'm the only one who rocks your world, ‘kay?"
Bree snickered and headed over to her car, parked a couple of spaces over, as Kody kissed me. "Come on, girl. You gotta tell me all about how huge Archer's dick is again. And did you tell me Steele pierced his?" She raised her voice enough it couldn't be anything but an attempt to tease Kody.
He gave a pained groan, then kissed me again and swatted my ass. "Go, enjoy. I'll be right behind you, okay?"
I smiled, rising on my tiptoes to smack another quick kiss on his lips. "Thanks. And you always rock my world, Kodiak Jones."
He rolled his eyes, but there was an amused smile on his lips when I blew a kiss over my shoulder at him before sliding into Bree's passenger seat.
Once we were in the privacy of her car, pulling out of the student lot with Kody's car right on our tail, I turned to her with an accusing glare.
"How'd you know Steele had a pierced dick? I never told you that!"
Her mouth dropped open in shock, and she gave me a wide-eyed stare while waiting for the traffic to clear. "Are you serious?" she shrieked. "I was just joking, but oh my god, this is too good. Tell me everything. What is it? Prince Albert? Guiche? King's crown? Magic cross? Come on, give me the gossip, MK!"
My cheeks flamed, and I deliberately looked out my window. "You know way too much about dick piercings, Bree."
She cackled like an evil witch, and I couldn't help the amusement silently shaking my shoulders. I couldn't believe I'd just accidentally told her about something that private.
"Come on, girl," she poked me in the leg, teasing, "you've admitted that much; you might as well tell me everything now."
"Bree!" I protested with a groan, but in reality I was entertained as hell. This was the Bree I'd been missing. Fun-loving, teasing, and a bit crude.
At least, while she was driving, she couldn't focus all her attention on harassing me for the intimate details of my very active sex life. I'd always been pretty open with her about my sexual partners, even telling her about the douchebag from Shadow Prep who'd convinced me to try anal for the first time. But now I found I didn't want to share those intimate moments. They were private between me and my guys.
I changed the subject, asking her about how things were going with Dallas and listening when she told me all about a run-in they'd recently had with a couple of Wraiths while they were on a date.
"I mean, can you believe that?" she asked me rhetorically when we paused behind a bus at a red light. "We're sitting there in this nice restaurant, about to order desserts, and these two punk-ass kids with their pants halfway around their knees come at Dallas like I'm just not even sitting there."
I tried not to laugh. She was clearly irritated that they’d interrupted her date, but it sounded like typical, lower-level gang bullshit to me. Not that I was the expert, but I'd seen enough in the weeks I'd stayed at Zane's apartment building.
"You should have sprayed them with your Mace," I teased her as the light turned green and the bus started rolling forward. "You know, really taught them a lesson in manners."
Bree shot me a deadpan glare. "Very funny. That actually sounds like something you'd do, you—"
Through her window, I saw a blacked-out Hummer barrel through the red light. I sucked in a breath to scream at her, but I was too slow.
It all happened at once. The Hummer didn't even attempt to slow as it plowed straight into the side of Bree's car and pushed us across three lanes of traffic. Our car spun, then dislodged from the front grill of the Hummer. We spiraled out of control for several gut-wrenching turns until finally we came to a screeching, crunching halt.
Everything hurt. My ears rang and my face stung from the airbag deploying. Pain throbbed through my skull, sharp agony slicing through my neck with every breath. But... I was still alive. I was still conscious. That had to be a good sign, right?
"Bree?" I croaked, then coughed at the tight ache in my chest. My seat belt had locked up, pinning me into my seat like a band of iron. It'd probably just saved my life.
"Bree?" I tried again, "Bree, babe, hey." I reached out a heavy hand, touching her shoulder but not shaking her. If she had a spine injury, that could make it worse. Her face was tilted away from me, her hair wet with blood, and she wasn't moving. She wasn't responding.
Fear choked me, filling my lungs and cutting off rational thought. Was she dead? That Hummer had hit her at speed. Her whole side of the car crumpled in, trapping her arm and left leg in a mangle of metal and blood.
"Bree, hun, talk to me. I'm gonna get help, okay?" My voice shook as I spoke, but Bree wasn't listening. The only hopes I had to cling to were the fractional rising and falling of her chest and the blood trickling from her forehead. That meant she had a pulse... didn't it?
"I'm getting help," I told her again, determined. Kody had been following right behind us; he'd already be calling an ambulance.
The ringing was quickly fading from my ears, only to be replaced by a much more fear-inducing sound.
Gunshots.
Fuck. I needed to get out of the car. I needed to get Bree to help. I needed to make sure Kody was okay.
Yanking on my seat belt got me nowhere; it was locked in place. I couldn't unbuckle it either—the clicker was stuck hard. Another round of shots rang out and terror surged through me. Kody was out there. Either he was shooting at someone... or they were shooting at him. I couldn't just sit there waiting for help, I needed to save myself. And my friend.
Gritting my teeth against the pain in my head, I wiggled my hand into the pocket of my jeans and pulled out my butterfly knife. Thank fuck I'd taken to carrying it everywhere with me because it was about to save my ass.
It only took a couple of tries to slice through the seat belt fabric, and I sent multiple mental thanks up to Archer's grandfather for crafting such an impressively sharp weapon.
My door miraculously popped open on the first try, but I cast another panicked look over at Bree. It fucking killed me to leave her, but I wasn't doing either of us any favors by staying in my seat. She needed urgent medical help, so I was going to make it happen.